Married Women in the Workplace

A letter from 24 November 1967 advised, “It [the post] will also be terminated automatically by your marriage although you may apply for an appointment to the Temporary Staff from the date of your marriage”.

Married Women in the Workplace

“It [the post] will also be terminated automatically by your marriage although you may apply for an appointment to the Temporary Staff from the date of your marriage”

Another example of a crowd-sourced item on display at the exhibition. Reproduced by kind permission of Geraldine Lawler

This offer of employment letter was kindly supplied by Geraldine Lawler, and it featured in the ‘Wives outside the Home’ section of the exhibition. In Ireland, a marriage bar meant that all women working in the Civil Service were required to leave their position upon marriage. Though no such legislation existed in relation to the private sector, it was tradition for most women working in that sector to also leave their employment. This letter also shows that some private employers echoed the public sector bar. The bar was eventually lifted in 1973.